Charles Gounod Faust - Metropolitan Opera

Charles Gounod
Faust
CONDUCTOR
Alain Altinoglu
PRODUCTION
Des McAnuff
SET DESIGNER
Robert Brill
COSTUME DESIGNER
Paul Tazewell
Opera in five acts
Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré,
based on Carré’s play Faust et Marguerite and
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part I
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 7:30 to 11:15 pm
First time this season
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Peter Mumford
CHOREOGRAPHER
Kelly Devine
VIDEO DESIGNER
Sean Nieuwenhuis
STAGE DIRECTOR
Jonathon Loy
The production of Faust was made possible
by a generous gift from Mercedes T. Bass, and
the Betsy and Edward Cohen/Areté Foundation
Fund for New Productions and Revivals
Additional funding was received from
the Gramma Fisher Foundation, Marshalltown, Iowa;
the Richard J. Massey Foundation for the Arts
and Sciences; and the Metropolitan Opera Club
GENERAL MANAGER
Peter Gelb
MUSIC DIRECTOR
James Levine
PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR
Fabio Luisi
Faust is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and
English National Opera

2012–13 Season
The 748th Metropolitan Opera performance of
Charles Gounod’s
Faust
Conductor
Alain Altinoglu
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Faust, a scientist
Piotr Beczala
Méphistophélès
John Relyea
Wagner
Richard Bernstein
Valentin, a soldier,
Marguerite’s brother
Alexey Markov
Siébel, one of
Faust’s students
Julie Boulianne
This performance
is being broadcast
live on Metropolitan
Opera Radio on
SiriusXM channel 74
and streamed at
metopera.org.
Marguerite
Marina Poplavskaya
Marthe, Marguerite’s friend
Catherine Cook
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 7:30 to 11:15 pm

KEN HOWARD/METROPOLITAN OPERA
A scene from
Gounod’s Faust
Chorus Master Donald Palumbo
Fight Director Steve Rankin
Assistants to the Set Designer Dustin O’Neill,
Andrew Boyce, Kristin Ellert, Steven Kemp, and
Angrette McCloskey
Assistant to the Costume Designer Michael Zecker
Musical Preparation Jonathan Khuner, Pierre Vallet,
Joshua Greene, and Natalia Katyukova
Assistant Stage Director Yefim Maizel
Prompter Jonathan Khuner
Met Titles Cori Ellison
Scenery, properties, and electrical props contracted
and painted at Cardiff Theatrical Services,
Souvenir, ENO Properties Workshop, and
Metropolitan Opera Shop
Costumes by ENO Costumes Wardrobe and
Metropolitan Opera Costume Department
Wigs executed by Metropolitan Opera Wig
Department
Illusionist Scott Penrose
This performance is made possible in part by public funds
from the New York State Council on the Arts.
This production uses fire and smoke effects.
Before the performance begins, please switch off
cell phones and other electronic devices.
Yamaha is the official piano
of the Metropolitan Opera.
Latecomers will not be
admitted during the
performance.
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Met Titles
To activate, press the red button to the right of the screen in front of
your seat and follow the instructions provided. To turn off the display,
press the red button once again. If you have questions please ask an
usher at intermission.

Synopsis
Act I
Faust’s laboratory
Act II
At the inn
Intermission (AT APPROXIMATELY 8:20 PM)
Act III
Outside Marguerite’s house
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Intermission (AT APPROXIMATELY 9:40 PM)
Act IV
scene 1 Inside Marguerite’s house
scene 2 The inn
scene 3 Outside Marguerite’s house
scene 4 The church
Act V
scene 1 Walpurgis Night
scene 2 The prison
Act I
Faust has spent a lifetime in the study of science. Disillusioned, he resolves to
poison himself. He curses God and calls on the Devil. Méphistophélès obligingly
appears and offers Faust riches, power, or glory. Faust, however, only wants to
recapture the innocence of youth. Méphistophélès agrees to Faust’s request, but
there are conditions: on earth Faust will be the master, but in the world below
their roles will be reversed. When Faust hesitates, Méphistophélès conjures up
a vision of Marguerite. Faust signs the contract and returns to his youth.
Act II
Valentin and Wagner are going off to war with the other soldiers, and Valentin is
concerned about leaving his sister Marguerite unprotected. Wagner starts a song
to cheer everyone up, but is interrupted by Méphistophélès. Méphistophélès
tells fortunes: Wagner, it seems, will be killed in his first battle. The flowers that
Siébel picks will wither, and Valentin will meet his death at the hands of someone
close to Méphistophélès. Dissatisfied with the wine on offer, Méphistophélès
conjures up a better vintage to toast Marguerite. This angers Valentin and he
and Méphistophélès draw their swords. Valentin strikes and his blade shatters.
Everyone is convinced they are in the presence of the Devil. Méphistophélès leads

Faust to a place where couples are dancing. Faust sees Marguerite and offers her
his arm. She refuses, but so charmingly that he is left more entranced than before.
Act III
Siébel gathers flowers for Marguerite outside her house. As Méphistophélès
predicted, they wither, but holy water seems to restore them. Méphistophélès
and Faust have been watching, and Méphistophélès leaves a box of jewels for
Marguerite. The atmosphere of innocence surrounding Marguerite’s home moves
Faust. Marguerite finds the jewels and puts them on. When she looks in the mirror,
she sees a different woman and is further confused by the encouragement of her
neighbour, Marthe. Faust and Méphistophélès return, and Méphistophélès flirts
with Marthe, giving Faust the opportunity to seduce Marguerite. She begins to
give in. Méphistophélès conjures up a garden and makes Marthe run off before
disappearing himself. Marguerite realizes she loves Faust and they make love.
Act IV
Seduced and abandoned, Marguerite is expecting Faust’s child. She is still in
love with him and prays for him and their unborn child.
The soldiers, including Valentin, return. Siébel tries to stop him from seeing
Marguerite but Valentin, suspecting the worst, pushes him aside.
Outside her house, Méphistophélès serenades Marguerite on Faust’s behalf.
Valentin and Faust fight and, with the intervention of Méphistophélès, Valentin
is fatally wounded. Marguerite watches her brother die and hears him curse her
with his last breath.
Distraught, Marguerite goes to church to pray for forgiveness. Hearing the voice
of Méphistophélès telling her that she is damned, she collapses in terror.
Act V
Walpurgis Night. Faust and Méphistophélès are surrounded by a group of
demons. Faust is shown a vision of Marguerite: she has been imprisoned for
infanticide and gone insane.
With Méphistophélès’s help, Faust goes to the prison in an attempt to save
Marguerite. She seems to recognize her lover and recalls the night when he first
seduced her. Faust is overwhelmed with pity. Marguerite panics at the sight of
the Devil and, with a frantic appeal to heaven, she dies. Méphistophélès damns
her but angelic voices proclaim she is saved.
—Courtesy of English National Opera
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35

In Focus
Charles Gounod
Faust
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Premiere: Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, 1859
One of many adaptations of the old story of an aged philosopher’s pact with
the devil, Faust is loosely based on Goethe’s epic drama of the same name. The
philosophical issues of the play are largely jettisoned in favor of a story whose
most immediate concern is the tension between the longing for youth and love
and the desire for salvation. Faust was a moderate success at its premiere, but
was subsequently reworked and enlarged, and its wealth of melody made it
extraordinarily popular throughout the opera world—too popular, perhaps, for
its own standing in critical and intellectual circles, where it came to be seen
as a crowd-pleasing, oversimplified adaptation of a towering work of literature.
Today that view has largely abated, and the opera can be appreciated for its
sheer beauty, its straightforward presentation of timeless human themes, and
its opportunities for superb and exciting singing.
The Creators
Charles Gounod (1818–1893) showed early promise as a musician and achieved
commercial success with Faust. His opera Roméo et Juliette (1867) was equally
well received in its day and remains in the repertory. Among his most famous
works is a setting of the Ave Maria based on a piece by J. S. Bach. Later in
life he composed several oratorios. Jules Barbier (1825–1901) and Michel Carré
(1821–1872) were the leading librettists of their time in France, providing the text
for many other successful operas, including Roméo for Gounod, Mignon (also
from Goethe) and Hamlet for Ambroise Thomas, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann
for Jacques Offenbach. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is the
preeminent figure of German literature. The author of Faust and The Sorrows
of Young Werther (the source for an opera by Massenet), he was also a wellregarded
authority on philosophy, art, and especially music.
The Setting
The traditional setting for Faust is 16th-century Germany, a time when alchemists
and philosophers were familiar characters in real life. Des McAnuff’s production
places the action in the first half of the 20th century.
The Music
The score is replete with the elegance and romanticism of mid-19th century
French opera—notably in the beautiful prelude and in the ballet music in Act V
(which is often omitted but largely restored in this production). Gounod’s talent

for religious music is apparent in the magnificent chorale invoked against
the devil’s power in Act II and, by way of parody, in the devil’s own music that
oppresses Marguerite in the church scene in Act IV. The chorus is featured
prominently and in very different ways throughout the opera, from the rousing
and unforgettable Soldiers’ Chorus in Act IV to the ethereal singing of the
angels in the finale. But it is the diverse music for the lead roles that has assured
this opera’s place in the repertory. Their solos are among the most cherished in
opera: the tenor’s lyrical greeting of his beloved’s humble home in Act III (“Salut!
demeure chaste et pure”); the bass-baritone’s infernal drinking song in Act II
(“Le veau d’or”) and his ribald, mocking laughing song in Act IV (“Vous qui faites
l’endormie”); the baritone’s ravishing farewell aria in Act II (“Avant de quitter ses
lieux”); and above all the soprano’s coloratura extravaganza, the famous Jewel
Song in Act III (“Ah! Je ris de me voir si belle”). The inherent beauty and charm
of these solos often disguise their technical difficulty—each of them requires
an extraordinary level of breath control and musical taste to be brought to life.
This becomes even more pronounced in the memorable passages for multiple
voices, such as the Act III quartet, which deftly combines romantic and comic
elements, and most notably in the soaring trio for soprano, tenor, and bass that
forms the opera’s musical and dramatic climax.
Faust at the Met
The first Metropolitan Opera House, on Broadway and 39th Street, opened with
a performance of Faust, sung in Italian, on October 22, 1883. The work remained
the most frequently heard opera at the Met well into the 20th century. Between
1886 and 1889 it was performed in German, then reverted to Italian and finally
to the original French. An 1891 tour performance in Chicago for the first time
brought together the impressive lineup of Emma Eames (Marguerite) and
brothers Jean (Faust) and Edouard de Reszke (Méphistophélès). Jean de Reszke
went on to sing the title role 71 times at the Met, while Edouard performed
the part of the devil an astounding 112 times through 1903. The other great
Méphistophélès of this era was Pol Plançon, who appeared 85 times between
1893 and 1908. Designer Joseph Urban and conductor Pierre Monteux made
their joint Met debuts with a new production in 1917 that starred Geraldine Farrar
and Giovanni Martinelli. Among the artists who appeared in this version over
the following decades were Licia Albanese, Dorothy Kirsten, Frank Guarrera,
and Ezio Pinza. It was replaced in 1953 by the debut production of Peter Brook,
designed by Rolf Gérard and again conducted by Monteux, with Jussi Björling,
Victoria de los Angeles, and Robert Merrill as Valentin. Opening night of 1965
witnessed the debut Met production of Jean-Louis Barrault, who directed
Nicolai Gedda, Gabriella Tucci, and Cesare Siepi, with Georges Prêtre on the
podium. Harold Prince made his Met debut with a 1990 production that featured
Neil Shicoff, Carol Vaness, and James Morris. In 2005 director Andrei Serban
and Met Music Director James Levine helmed another new staging that starred
Roberto Alagna, Soile Isokoski, René Pape, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. The current
production opened November 29, 2011, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting
Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, and Pape in the leading roles.
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Program Note
The legendary German poet, playwright, novelist, and scientist Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe first began working on his epic drama Faust as
early as 1772, when he was just 23 years old and a recent graduate of law
school. He could not have known then that his toil on the project would occupy
him for the rest of his life, stretching to enormous proportions and not reaching
its completion until the year of his death six decades later. What he did know,
however, was that he wanted to eventually see Faust set to music. Goethe was
clearly a man of good taste in this regard, as he approached Mozart to suggest
a collaboration in the early stages of his writing. Sadly, by the time Goethe finally
managed to complete Part I around 1806, Mozart—despite being seven years
Goethe’s junior—was 15 years in the grave. And when the finishing touches were
put to Part II in 1832, music itself had changed tremendously. Beethoven had
come and gone, turning the world on its ear and ushering in Romanticism in the
20 short, stormy years between the “Eroica” (1804) and the Ninth Symphony
(1824). Despite his dream of having his work turned into an opera, Goethe
had no faith in the young Romantics, declaring that—regardless of his death—
Mozart was still the only composer worthy of setting Faust to music.
Ironically, the Romantics felt entirely the opposite about Goethe. He became
the most important poetic touchstone for 19th-century German composers,
inspiring countless works by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Liszt, Schumann,
Wolf, and many others. Faust, though, remained intimidating. Goethe’s
ultimate masterpiece stretches to several hundred pages of text, depending
on the edition, and concerns itself with a dizzying array of profound topics:
philosophy, mythology, theology, temptation, desire, love, human nature, the
quest for knowledge, the meaning of life, and the mystery of the afterlife. To
make matters worse, there was also the issue of Mozart’s shadow. As Schumann
wrote to Mendelssohn while planning his oratorio Szenen aus Goethes Faust,
any composer hoping to set Faust “would not only be judged by his treatment
of one of the seminal and most widely acclaimed works in German literature,
but would also be setting himself up to be compared to Mozart.” Perhaps it is
not surprising, then, that the most enduringly popular musical work based on
Faust was written by a Frenchman, takes as its starting point a loose Frenchlanguage
adaptation of the text, and makes no attempt to match the scope and
profundity of the original drama.
Charles Gounod began work on his Faust in 1856. At the time, he was not a
prominent opera composer; his modest reputation rested mainly on his body of
religious music and his having won the Prix de Rome in 1839. He had completed
two previous operas, Sapho and La Nonne Sanglante—both of which were
produced at the Académie Impériale de Musique (more commonly known as
the Paris Opera)—but both were failures. Determined to have a hit, he came
up with a new idea: an opera on Goethe’s Faust. It was rejected. The Opera’s
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39

Program Note CONTINUED
impresario cited concerns that the work would not be spectacular enough, but
one has to wonder whether it had more to do with the composer’s two earlier
flops. In any case, the emerging Théâtre Lyrique swooped in to ask that Gounod
write Faust for its stage instead, and he jumped at the opportunity.
Gounod’s librettists were nominally Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, but
Carré’s main contribution was to allow Barbier a free hand in drawing much of the
libretto’s text from Carré’s Faust et Marguerite, a three-act “drame fantastique”
based loosely on Part I of Goethe’s play. In Carré’s drama and Gounod’s
opera, the tale is thinned down to its basics. Rather than an all-encompassing
rumination on the human condition, we have a simple, affecting love story: man
seduces woman, abandons her, realizes too late that he is truly in love, and
attempts to rescue her from tragic circumstances of his own making. That there
is a demonic bargain thrown into the mix seems almost an afterthought. But the
drastic shift in tone and reduction of ambition compared to Goethe’s original
are also the reasons for the opera’s success. Schumann, et al. were right—
attempting to create an operatic equivalent of Goethe’s star-gazing drama is
a fool’s errand. But at the heart of it is a down-to-earth, grippingly human story
fairly begging for music. (To distance Faust the opera from the play, it is to this
day often performed under the title Margarethe in German-speaking countries,
a practice introduced in 1861 in Dresden.)
Faust premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in 1859, but it took a decade and
multiple revisions before it settled into “completed” form. Gounod made
various cuts during rehearsals for the premiere and continued to experiment
with including and omitting a variety of scenes in subsequent performances. The
original version also contained spoken dialogue rather than recitative; Gounod
had to go back the following year and write music for those sections so the
work could be performed outside France. For an 1864 London production, he
added Valentin’s famous Act II aria, “Avant de quitter ces lieux,” for the popular
baritone Charles Santley, who was annoyed at his character’s lack of opportunity
for vocal display. The most important addition, though, came in 1869, when the
work finally made it onto the stage of the Paris Opera, for which Gounod had
intended it in the first place. Here, a show was not complete without a ballet, so
Faust’s fifth act gained a 20-minute dance section in the Walpurgis Night scene.
Though this is one of many operas that have been subjected to vicious cuts
over the years, audiences today generally hear the full—or almost full—score.
For this Met production, most of the ballet (the only section of the opera still
frequently omitted in performance) has been restored.
The first production at the Théâtre Lyrique was only modestly successful, but
Faust did eventually become Gounod’s hit. Following the Paris premiere, the
publisher Antoine de Choudens bought the rights for a bargain 10,000 francs
and took the opera on tour through Germany, Belgium, Italy, and England,
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Program Note CONTINUED
accumulating increasing popular acclaim along the way. Faust was revived in
Paris in 1862 for the inauguration of the Théâtre Lyrique’s new hall and proved a
massive success. After the 1869 production at the Opera, it went from success to
sensation, becoming the most frequently performed opera in Paris and holding
that position for a long time. By 1975 it had been given more than 2,000 times
at the Opera alone. Faust also took the rest of the world by storm, eventually
being translated into at least 25 languages, and was likely the most frequently
performed opera worldwide in the late 19th century.
It was no different in New York. On October 22, 1883, the Metropolitan Opera
opened its inaugural season with Faust. A decade later, when the house reopened
after a devastating fire had caused a dark season, Faust was again chosen as the
celebratory centerpiece. Since then, the company has presented more than 700
performances. And though the popularity of Gounod’s masterpiece has waned
somewhat in the last 50 years or so, it still claims a comfortable place in the heart
of the repertoire, seeing the stage more than any other French-language opera
save Bizet’s Carmen and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
—Jay Goodwin
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The Cast
Alain Altinoglu
conductor (paris, france)
this season Otello and Faust at the Met, Der Fliegende Holländer at the Zurich Opera
and London’s Royal Albert Hall, Henri Rabaud’s Mârouf, Savetier du Caire at Paris’s Opéra
Comique, and orchestral engagements in Paris, Dresden, Mannheim, Zurich, Lyon, and
Vienna, among others.
met appearances Carmen (debut, 2010).
career highlights His recent opera projects include Faust at the Paris Opera and Vienna
State Opera, Falstaff at the Vienna State Opera, Massenet’s Cendrillon at Brussels’s La
Monnaie, Rigoletto in Cologne, and Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at the Paris
Opera. He has also led Don Giovanni at Covent Garden and the Paris Opera, Faust at the
Berlin State Opera, and Falstaff at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. He has conducted
the Berlin Staatskapelle, Orchestre National d’Île-France, and Lyon Orchestra, and at the
San Francisco Opera, Salzburg Festival, and at Buenos Aires’s Teatro Colón.
Julie Boulianne
mezzo-soprano (dolbeau-mistassini, canada)
this season Siébel in Faust and Ascanio in Les Troyens at the Met, Romeo in I Capuleti e
i Montecchi with L’Opéra de Reims, and her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
met appearances Diane in Iphigénie en Tauride (debut, 2011) and Stéphano in Roméo et
Juliette.
career highlights Recent performances include Miranda in Thomas Adès’s The Tempest
for her debut with the Quebec Opera, her Japanese debut at the Saito Kinen Festival
in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher, and her Mostly Mozart debut in Haydn’s Nelson
Mass. She has also sung the title role of Handel’s Tolomeo with the Glimmerglass Opera,
Lazuli in Chabrier’s L’Étoile with New York City Opera, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro
with Vancouver Opera, the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon in Montreal and Marseille,
and Angelina in La Cenerentola at Aspen Opera Theater, Florida Grand Opera, and
Glimmerglass Opera. Additional performances include Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia
with the Minnesota Opera and Zerlina in Don Giovanni in Avignon.
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Marina Poplavskaya
soprano (moscow, russia)
this season Marguerite in Faust at the Met, Alice in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable at Covent
Garden, Lucrezia in I Due Foscari at the Los Angeles Opera, Gutrune in Götterdämmerung
at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and La Scala, and Violetta in La Traviata for the
Netherlands Opera.
met appearances Elisabeth in Don Carlo, Violetta, Liù in Turandot, and Natasha in War and
Peace (debut, 2007).
career highlights Recent performances include Violetta at Covent Garden, the Deutsche
Staatsoper Berlin, and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Marfa in The Tsar’s Bride at Covent
Garden, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera, Leonora in Il Trovatore
in Brussels, and Micaëla in Carmen in Barcelona. She has also sung Rachel in La Juive,
Amelia, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Elisabeth at Covent
Garden, Desdemona in Otello at the Salzburg Festival and Rome Opera, Marguerite at
the Berlin State Opera, Mathilde in Guillaume Tell in Amsterdam, and Maria in Mazeppa
and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at the Bolshoi Opera.
Piotr Beczala
tenor (czechowice-dziedzice, poland)
this season The Duke in Rigoletto and the title role of Faust at the Met, Rodolfo in La
Bohème at La Scala and the Vienna State Opera, the Prince in Rusalka in Warsaw, Alfredo
in La Traviata with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, and Roméo in Roméo et Juliette with
the Vienna State Opera.
met appearances Des Grieux in Manon, Rodolfo, Roméo, Lenski in Eugene Onegin, and
the Duke (debut, 2006).
career highlights Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier,
Vaudémont in Iolanta, and the Prince at the Salzburg Festival, the Duke at Covent Garden
and La Scala, Alfredo in Munich and Berlin, and Werther in Frankfurt and Munich. He has
also sung Tamino in Die Zauberflöte in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, Jeník in The Bartered
Bride with the Paris Opera and in Zurich, Rodolfo in Amsterdam, Vaudémont in Vienna
and Moscow, and Lenski at Paris’s Bastille Opera and for his 2004 United States debut
with the San Francisco Opera.
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The Cast CONTINUED
Alexey Markov
baritone (viborg, russia)
this season Valentin in Faust and di Luna in Il Trovatore at the Met, di Luna at Munich’s
Bavarian State Opera, and Nottingham in Roberto Devereux, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor,
and Count Anckarström in Un Ballo in Maschera in Zurich.
met appearances Marcello in La Bohème, Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov, Tomsky in The
Queen of Spades, and Prince Andrei in War and Peace (debut, 2007).
career highlights He has sung Robert in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Fyodor
Poyarok in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh with the Netherlands
Opera, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades and the title role of Eugene Onegin in Lyon, di
Luna in Bordeaux, Eugene Onegin in Monte Carlo, Iago in Otello in Dresden, and Scarpia
in Tosca in Frankfurt. He was a first-prize winner of St. Petersburg’s Rimsky-Korsakov Vocal
Competition and the Obraztsova Competition.
John Relyea
bass-baritone (toronto, canada)
this season Méphistophélès in Faust at the Met, Bertram in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable
at Covent Garden, the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Munich’s Bavarian State
Opera, his first Zaccaria in Nabucco with the Minnesota Opera, and King Marke in concert
performances of Tristan und Isolde with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
met appearances Colline in La Bohème, Escamillo in Carmen, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro,
Alidoro in La Cenerentola (debut, 2000), Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Banquo in
Macbeth, Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Giorgio Walton in I Puritani, the Night Watchman in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Masetto in Don
Giovanni, and Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust.
career highlights Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust for his debut with the Lyric
Opera of Chicago, the title role in Bluebeard’s Castle with the Seattle Opera, the Four
Villains and Escamillo at the Vienna State Opera, Figaro in Munich, Nick Shadow in The
Rake’s Progress and Banquo at Covent Garden, Escamillo at Paris’s Bastille Opera, and
Cadmus/Somnus in Semele, Colline, and Raimondo at Covent Garden and the San
Francisco Opera. Recipient of the Met’s 2008 Beverly Sills Artist Award, established
by Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman.
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